Description

Efforts to assess forest ecosystem carbon stocks, biodiversity, and fire hazards have spurred the need for comprehensive assessments of forest ecosystem dead wood (DW) attributes around the world. Currently, information regarding the prevalence, status, and methods of DW inventories occurring in the world?s forested landscapes is scattered. The goal of this study is to describe the current status of DW, including DW attributes measured, sample methods employed, and DW attribute thresholds used by national forest inventories (NFI) that currently inventory DW around the world. Study results indicate that most countries do not inventory forest DW. Only 13 percent of all countries inventory DW, and sample methods and DW component definitions are diverse. The major commonality among DW inventories was that most countries have only just begun DW inventories and employ very low sample intensities. Harmonizing NFI DW inventories will be a major hurdle due to differences in population definitions, lack of clarity on sample protocols and estimation procedures, and sparse availability of inventory data and reports are some of the inconsistencies. Increasing database and estimation flexibility, developing common dimensional thresholds, publishing inventory procedures and protocols, releasing inventory data and reports to international peer review, and increasing communication (e.g., workshops) among countries inventorying DW are suggestions forwarded by this study to increase NFI DW harmonization.